Douglas Horton, a noted American Protestant clergyman, is quoted as saying, “Smile, it’s free therapy.” A smile is one of the easiest ways to let someone know:
The look on your face can speak volumes about your feelings towards a situation or a person. But what if the smile on a person’s face never went away due to plastic surgery? Would you find a permanent smile endearing or kind of creepy?
A group of doctors in South Korea are performing a plastic surgery procedure known as a “Smile Lipt." The procedure alters the face of the patient by putting a permanent smile on his or her face. You can think of the procedure as a “Lip Lift” as the name “Lipt” is a combination of “lip” and “lift.”
The procedure has been patented and is performed by Aone Plastic Surgery in South Korea. According to the Seoul-based business, the procedure has the “mouth corners lifted upward with just a little bit of movement and makes smiling lips, thus the middle part of the upper lip won’t be lifted to show the gum. If gum is exposed with smiling, Smile Lipt is the most effective and simple method. At the same time, the smiling feature becomes very elegant.”
The surgery, which costs in the neighborhood of $2000, involves cutting the corners of the mouth and permanently turning them upward. It’s proving to be popular among men and women in their 20s and 30s who work in industries that follow the old saying of offering “service with a smile.”
According to a video produced by Aone, the procedure allows people to look like they’re smiling even if they’re not actually smiling. The video goes on to state that the procedure is ideal for people who are not confident about their smiles or have asymmetric mouth corners.
The “Smile Lipt” procedure is a form of an older procedure called “Valentine anguloplasty.” The procedure, which also alters surgically alters the corners of the mouth to make a permanent smile, is not performed much anymore by Western plastic surgeons. Even though it’s not as popular anymore in the West, it has been in existence for around 50 years. The technique was developed in response to the downturned corners of the mouth that tend to develop in older people as they continue to age. Aone claims to have upgraded this technique by employing a different lifting direction to move the muscles used for smiling.
While the thought of always greeting the world with a smile is a nice one, it can prove to be problematic when it comes to everyday life. The permanent smile can be of great use when you’re at work and trying to put your best foot forward with customers. A permanent smile might not be ideal when you are trying to have a serious conversation with a friend, attending a funeral or trying to express your sorrow over a personal situation with a loved one.
Even though the idea of a permanent smile might be appealing to you, many critics of the procedure dismiss it as creating a “Joker-like appearance” in its patients. Also, the trend to create permanent smiles has not fully crossed over to the United States. While there might be some doctors that still perform the surgery, it is not a widely popular procedure in America. As with any cosmetic surgery option, the final decision to undergo the procedure is up to the patient.
- MA
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